Environmental Health: Translating Policy Into Action
Authors: Emily Senay, Andrew Hantel
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2022)

EditorialsNovember 2022Environmental Health: Translating Policy Into ActionEmily Senay, MD, MPH and Andrew Hantel, MDEmily Senay, MD, MPHDepartment of Environmental Medicine & Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York and Andrew Hantel, MDDana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, Boston, MassachusettsAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/M22-2808 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail Climate instability, extreme weather, and natural disasters have surged over the past 50 years, resulting in substantial and increasing harms to human health. Almost daily, evidence of the rapidly escalating climate crisis grows. As we write, wildfires fueled by record high temperatures rage on the West Coast. In July, extreme rainfall—600% higher than usual—caused historic flooding and 39 deaths in eastern Kentucky (1). In June 2021, 157 people died when record-breaking temperatures topped 110 °F in Washington, making it the deadliest weather event in the state's history (2). A driver of these and other disasters are planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from ...References1. National Weather Service. Historic July 26th–July 30th, 2022 Eastern Kentucky Flooding. Jackson, KY Weather Forecast Office; 2022. Accessed at www.weather.gov/jkl/July2022Flooding on 19 September 2022. Google Scholar2. Popovich N, Choi-Schagrin W. Hidden Toll of the Northwest Heat Wave: Hundreds of Extra Deaths. The New York Times. 11 August 2021. Google Scholar3. Rahman MM, McConnell R, Schlaerth H, et al. The effects of co-exposure to extremes of heat and particulate air pollution on mortality in California: implications for climate change. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2022. [PMID: 35727303] doi:10.1164/rccm.202204-0657OC CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Crowley R, Mathew S, Hilden D; Health and Public Policy Committee of the American College of Physicians. Environmental health: a position paper from the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med. 2022;175:1591-3. doi:10.7326/M22-1864 LinkGoogle Scholar5. Fuller R, Landrigan PJ, Balakrishnan K, et al. Pollution and health: a progress update. Lancet Planet Health. 2022;6:e535-e547. [PMID: 35594895] doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00090-0 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar6. Bressler RD. The mortality cost of carbon. Nat Commun. 2021;12:4467. [PMID: 34326326] doi:10.1038/s41467-021-24487-w CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar7. Salas RN, Solomon CG. The climate crisis—health and care delivery. N Engl J Med. 2019;381:e13. [PMID: 31433915] doi:10.1056/NEJMp1906035 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar8. Wei Y, Yazdi MD, Di Q, et al. Emulating causal dose-response relations between air pollutants and mortality in the Medicare population. Environ Health. 2021;20:53. [PMID: 33957920] doi:10.1186/s12940-021-00742-x CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar9. Eckelman MJ, Huang K, Lagasse R, et al. Health care pollution and public health damage in the United States: an update. Health Aff (Millwood). 2020;39:2071-9. [PMID: 33284703] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar10. Senay E, Cort T, Perkison W, et al. What can hospitals learn from the Coca-Cola Company? Health care sustainability reporting. NEJM Catalyst. March 2022. doi:10.1056/CAT.21.0362 CrossrefGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAuthors: Emily Senay, MD, MPH; Andrew Hantel, MDAffiliations: Department of Environmental Medicine & Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New YorkDana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, Boston, MassachusettsDisclosures: Disclosures can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M22-2808.Corresponding Author: Emily Senay, MD, MPH, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1043, New York, NY 10029; e-mail, emily.senay@mssm.edu.This article was published at Annals.org on 25 October 2022. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoEnvironmental Health: A Position Paper From the American College of Physicians Ryan Crowley , Suja Mathew , and David Hilden , for the Health and Public Policy Committee of the American College of Physicians Metrics Cited byEnvironmentally Mediated Health Disparities November 2022Volume 175, Issue 11Page: 1612-1613KeywordsAir qualityClimate changeEnvironmental healthHealth carePollutionPrevention, policy, and public healthPublic policy ePublished: 25 October 2022 Issue Published: November 2022 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2022 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...